Psalms 115:3
Context115:3 Our God is in heaven!
He does whatever he pleases! 1
Psalms 18:19
Context18:19 He brought me out into a wide open place;
he delivered me because he was pleased with me. 2
Psalms 109:17
Context109:17 He loved to curse 3 others, so those curses have come upon him. 4
He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. 5
Psalms 5:4
Context5:4 Certainly 6 you are not a God who approves of evil; 7
evil people 8 cannot dwell with you. 9
Psalms 22:8
Context“Commit yourself 11 to the Lord!
Let the Lord 12 rescue him!
Let the Lord 13 deliver him, for he delights in him.” 14
Psalms 112:1
Context112:1 Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the one 16 who obeys 17 the Lord,
who takes great delight in keeping his commands. 18
Psalms 135:6
Context135:6 He does whatever he pleases
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all the ocean depths.


[115:3] 1 sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).
[18:19] 2 tn Or “delighted in me.”
[109:17] 3 sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.
[109:17] 4 tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.
[109:17] 5 tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”
[5:4] 5 tn Heb “not a God [who] delights [in] wickedness [are] you.”
[5:4] 6 tn The Hebrew text has simply the singular form רע, which may be taken as an abstract noun “evil” (the reference to “wickedness” in the preceding line favors this; cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) or as a substantival adjective “evil one” (the references to evil people in the next two verses favor this; cf. NIV “with you the wicked cannot dwell”).
[5:4] 7 tn Heb “cannot dwell as a resident alien [with] you.” The negated imperfect verbal form here indicates incapability or lack of permission. These people are morally incapable of dwelling in God’s presence and are not permitted to do so.
[22:8] 5 tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons. The psalmist here quotes the sarcastic taunts of his enemies.
[22:8] 6 tn Heb “roll [yourself].” The Hebrew verb גלל here has the sense of “commit” (see Prov 16:3). The imperatival form in the Hebrew text indicates the enemies here address the psalmist. Since they refer to him in the third person in the rest of the verse, some prefer to emend the verb to a perfect, “he commits himself to the
[22:8] 7 tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the
[22:8] 8 tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the
[22:8] 9 tn That is, “for he [the
[112:1] 6 sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
[112:1] 7 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.
[112:1] 9 tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.